According to a new study published in the October 2011 issue of Gender and Society, 58 percent female undergraduates finish a bachelor's degree in the U.S., but only few women compared to men earn an undergraduate degree in the hard sciences and engineering. For example, in computer and information science, 21 percent of the graduates are women, and in engineering, women earn 19 percent of the undergraduate degrees
The researchers looked at 50 programs in the US. They found that all the programs had an atmosphere and attitude that effectively drew women away. The classroom atmosphere was hostile and competitive and the dominantly male faculty had implicit biases against women. The departments that claimed to be committed to attracting and retaining women did not implement any procedures to accomplish this.
Though philosophy does not count as one of the hard sciences, the problems philosophy encounters in terms of hiring women in academic jobs can be compared to the problems the hard sciences and engineering encounter in terms of attracting and retaining women in undergraduate programs. Philosophy programs do better in terms of attracting and retaining Ph.D. students than the sciences. Over the last decade the number of women in philosophy Ph.D. programs has ranged from 30 to 40 percent but in terms of actual hires, philosophy compares to the hard sciences and engineering. Only 20 percent of the philosophers who have a tenure-track position in a philosophy program are women.
The asymmetry between the number of women who finish a Ph.D. in philosophy and the number of women who are hired in philosophy may suggest an implicit bias against women in the hiring process. But part of the problem may also be that women have all odds against them. If they decide to have children, they are the ones who have to carry the child for nine months, and they are the ones who will need some time off afterwards to recover. While some women don't mind going to conferences and giving talks when they are pregnant, I know that I preferred not to show up pregnant in these kinds of places. While pregnant I turned down every invitation to speak and did not attend any conferences. It was not because I felt bad physically but because I feared that people would react differently to me. Needless to say, men do not have this problem, regardless of how many children they decide to have.
But it is not just the biological differences between men and women that may stand in the way of women getting hired in male-dominant departments. I once attended a talk that was followed by a speaker dinner. The talk was interesting, and the speaker's work seemed fascinating. I attended the dinner, hoping to discuss the speaker's work in further detail. Soon after the dinner started, the speaker started asserting the most outrageous things about women. He postulated that men who hired women in academia only did this when they wanted some action (read: sexual encounters). He also mentioned that women in academia who had children couldn't possibly be taken seriously. He went on along these lines for the rest of the night. I was chocked, literally unable to say anything. Luckily, a couple of my male colleagues came to my rescue and defended women against this man's outrageous attacks.
Perhaps this was an exception to the norm. But the fact that this man was not at all shy about making these statements in my presence makes me feel uncertain about what other men in the profession are thinking about women. Add to that the fact that women often are treated differently in various functions in the profession, even at such simple things as the Q&A after talks. A couple of years go, I was the first person to ask a question after a talk. After my question, the speaker got enormously aggressive, bordering rude. The person who asked a question right after me was also a woman. Once again the speaker became inappropriately aggressive, and told the young female faculty member that she should have showed up to the event earlier that day where he had explained all of this to the students (this particular department always had a student-speaker session that preceded the talk). When it was obvious that my female colleague didn't appreciate his response, the speaker said that she was too sensitive. Later on during the Q&A some of my male colleagues asked questions quite similar to those my female colleague and I had asked; some of them could even be considered reformulations of our questions. Unsurprisingly, the speaker treated the men with the utmost respect.
Women also seem to have a disadvantage when it comes to tenure and promotion. Male colleagues in my department sometimes have been allowed to go up for early tenure. Are women allowed to do that, too? No. My department made me wait an extra year or two before I was allowed to go up for tenure. Was this a case in which the men had accomplished significantly more than I had. No, it actually looked like it was the other way around.
In this kind of climate, I understand if women give up. If you have all odds against you, and you have to do things three times as well to receive the same recognition and respect, then maybe it just isn't worth the effort. I don't personally feel that way. But I understand if other women do. The climate women have to endure in the hard sciences, engineering and philosophy may push them away. I don't think this is the full explanation of why there are only 20 percent women in philosophy research programs but it may explain some of the inequality. Women are, for the most part, very rational beings. If they sense that the injustice in the profession goes too deep and cannot be overcome, they typically are clever enough to protect themselves by leaving. There are plenty of other places where they can put their insight and intelligence to good use.
Resource: Programs for Undergraduate Women in Science and Engineering
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